School of Food and Biological Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Anhui Province, 230009, PR China.
Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2020 Jun 18;527(1):194-199. doi: 10.1016/j.bbrc.2020.04.087. Epub 2020 Apr 30.
Peritrichously flagellated bacteria such as Escherichia coli (E. coli) perform chemotaxis by a biased random walk toward various chemicals, which was driven by the bacterial flagellar motor. Fructose, a typical monosaccharide that can attract E. coli. However, little is known about the chemotaxis and motility response of E. coli towards fructose. Here, we characterized the chemotaxis behavior of E. coli to different concentrations of fructose from 0 mM to 50 mM by using microfluidics and bead assay. We observed the wild-type cells responded to the stimulus of fructose, which suggested fructose is an attractant to E. coli, while the cells defective in chemotaxis could not sense the stimulus of fructose. The motility of wild-type cells was reduced in various concentrations of fructose, which helped the aggregation of cells near surfaces, in contrast with the result that the fructose showed no effect on the motility of the cells defective in chemotaxis. Similar phenomena are expected to be found in the effect of other monosaccharides to E. coli.
周毛鞭毛菌，如大肠杆菌（E. coli），通过细菌鞭毛马达的驱动，朝着各种化学物质进行偏随机游走，从而进行趋化作用。果糖是一种典型的单糖，能吸引大肠杆菌。然而，对于大肠杆菌对果糖的趋化作用和运动反应知之甚少。在这里，我们通过微流控和珠子实验，从 0 mM 到 50 mM 来描述大肠杆菌对不同浓度果糖的趋化行为。我们观察到野生型细胞对果糖的刺激有反应，这表明果糖是大肠杆菌的一种趋化物，而趋化作用缺陷的细胞则无法感知果糖的刺激。果糖在不同浓度下降低了野生型细胞的运动能力，这有助于细胞在靠近表面的地方聚集，这与果糖对趋化作用缺陷细胞的运动能力没有影响的结果形成对比。在其他单糖对大肠杆菌的影响中，预计也会出现类似的现象。
